On the nearly three-hour flight from Baltimore, where
Jerry Jones attended the funeral of former Baltimore Ravens owner Art
Modell, to Dallas the Cowboys owner covers a variety of topics but there's one that captures his attention: "Jerry Wipes."

The Dallas Cowboys
owner has been in the news again this week after his son-in-law, Shy
Anderson, was captured on national TV during the season-opening victory
at the New York Giants, cleaning Jones' glasses with a handkerchief.

That
moment gained legs when Anderson, married to Jones' only daughter,
Charlotte, declared that he would market 'Jerry Wipes,' an eyeglass
cleaning cloth. The wipes ($2.99) went on sale on the team's website
Wednesday, with proceeds going to charity.

"You've got to admit:
Who would've thought of the eyeglass thing?" he says on the flight. "Ol'
Shy looked down there and said, 'My God, I never saw anything so
dirty.'"

Jones, ever the businessman, had more on his mind than
Jerry Wipes, however. In a candid, wide-ranging interview with USA TODAY
Sports, the 69-year-old GM/owner discussed everything from his team's
recent lack of postseason success to his envy of the rival New York
Giants. He weighed in on players such as star quarterback Tony Romo and
troubled receiver Dez Bryant.

That the brief clip became such a
Jerry Wipes event has become a national talker item is yet another
example of the appeal of the Cowboys, and the lightning rod who owns the richest sports franchise in America, valued recently by Forbes at $2.1 billion.

Jones
-- whose franchise has won three Super Bowls since he purchased the
team and the lease to since-demolished Texas Stadium for $152 million in
1989 -- has had his hands all over a product that has produced just one
playoff victory in the past 16 years but remains arguably the NFL's
most popular team.

"It's almost surreal to me to sit here and we haven't been here to a Super Bowl in these many years," he says.

Along
the way, Jones has become more visible than nearly probably all of his
current players, except maybe the much-maligned quarterback, Tony Romo.
He has appeared in countless commercials, is interviewed constantly and
even appeared on Entourage.

Jones doesn't care if you think he is
too visible, or that he takes attention away from players or second-year
coach Jason Garrett. He sees his persona as a window to the NFL.

"I've never had one thought that I'm going to upstage the Cowboys," he says. "Being part of the story of the Cowboys,
that's legitimate. That's how I got here. I'm well aware of what Tex
(Schramm), Tom (Landry), Troy (Aikman), Roger (Staubach), (Tony) Dorsett
have contributed. That's why I'll never upstage that."

Hall of Fame receiver Michael Irvin arrived in Dallas one season before Jones.

"For the Cowboys,
I really didn't believe there was another level after what Tex Schramm,
Tom Landry and Gil Brandt built," Irvin recalls. "Jerry has taken their
ceiling and made it his floor."

Yet for all the fame, what he
stills craves most are those elusive postseason wins. Jones called last
season's 8-8 finish his most disappointing in the years since the last
Super Bowl crown following the 1995 season.

There's plenty of
disappointment to choose from in that regard. Blowing the No. 1 seed in
2008, or being hailed as the NFL's most "talented" team in 2009 and
getting drubbed in the second round of the playoffs.

Yet he's not afraid to trash-talk the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants.

During a training camp rally, he urged fans to come "watch us beat the Giants' ass."

Reflecting,
he says, "I knew there was a chance that several of the players over
there could hear me, but I certainly knew they'd find out about it."

Following the Cowboys
24-17 victory over the Giants at Met Life Stadium, Jones beamed in the
visitor's locker room. After sticking his neck out, it seemed like a
playoff victory.

He has been around long enough to know the value
of a Week 1 victory, but this one was special for a few reasons,
including his envy of the Giants' championship status.

"You'll
never convince me that the Giants didn't take our role last year," Jones
says. "That should have been us, doing what the Giants did. That has a
lot to do with my attitude about the first game. They've got our spot."

Jones has been irked by New York's dominance over Dallas in recent years. When the Cowboys earned the NFC's No. 1 seed with a 13-3 record in 2008, the Giants upset Dallas
in the playoff opener. When Jones unveiled his sparkling stadium in
2009, the Giants played the spoiler before 100,000 in the opener.

Giants owner John Mara acknowledges the relationship connecting the teams but says it extends beyond Jones.

"We have a long-standing rivalry with them," Mara said. "It doesn't have much to do with him at this point."

Last season, the Giants earned a playoff spot with a 9-7 record by defeating Dallas twice in the final four weeks -- including a Week 14 loss in Arlington, Texas, when the Cowboys blew a 12-point lead in the final five minutes.

Thus,
Jones declared that all of his win-now offseason moves were designed to
match up better against the Giants -- including a $50.1 million
contract for free-agent cornerback Brandon Carr, a trade up to select
LSU corner Morris Claiborne sixth overall, beefing up the O-line with
free agents and keeping linebacker Anthony Spencer on board with an $8.8
million franchise tag.

"In my mind," he adds of the Week 1 win,
"what we gained was so much more nourishing for us, than the loss was
for them. We needed to win."

Jones has no grand declarations regarding Sunday's game at the Seattle Seahawks, but remembers the last trip to the Pacific Northwest.

That
was the NFC wild-card playoff contest following the 2006 season,
remembered most for Romo fumbling the snap on the short field goal that
could have won the game. But that was the season Romo emerged as the
surprise starter.

"It really changed things for the franchise," he
says. "So it was pretty meaningful. It ushered in a real belief that
Romo has got all the stuff to take us all the way."

Although Jones said during the offseason that the "window is closing" on the Cowboys
to win a championship with Romo, he explains that Romo, who has two
years remaining on this contract, is in his 10th season and other
all-pro foundation blocks, including linebacker DeMarcus Ware and tight
end Jason Witten, are deep into their careers.

Jones says he doesn't believe Romo should take the heat for the Cowboys' inability to win a championship, or the team's inability to reach the playoffs the past two seasons.

"I
understand that the quarterback is going to get it," Jones says. "I
don't know how you criticize him for when he got hurt in the sixth game
two years ago (fractured collarbone). You sure couldn't criticize him
for last season." Romo threw for over 4,000 yards and 31 TDs in 2011.

What about people who suggest the Cowboys will never win a crown with Romo? "I don't hear 'em," Jones says.

He doesn't hear them or doesn't believe them? "I'm not trying to solicit a big chant," he says. "But I don't hear a big chant."

Romo had nothing but positive things to say about Jones at the Cowboys practice facility on Thursday.

"A quarterback only wants one thing: An owner who cares about winning as much as you do," Romo says. "Jerry is the ultimate."

Jones
hasn't wavered on his support of Romo, but has been tested in his
commitment to Bryant, the talented, third-year receiver, Dez Bryant.

Bryant
was arrested in DeSoto, Texas, in July on misdemeanor assault charges
against his mother, Angela. Although Bryant's mother has apparently
indicated that she doesn't want to pursue charges that stemmed from a
family dispute,the Dallas County district attorney hasn't decided whether to pursue a case.

When the team returned from training camp in late August, ESPN revealed that Bryant and the Cowboys
had agreed to a series of off-the-field guidelines -- including
participation in counseling sessions, a prohibition on alcohol and
round-the-clock security.

The issue could draw a review from Goodell and possible discipline under the league's personal conduct policy.

Says Jones, "Dez needed to show his constituents that he was serious, and meant business."

Jones maintains the plan was devised by Bryant's advisor, David Wells, and agent Eugene Parker. The constituents include the Cowboys and the NFL. Since selected by the Cowboys
in the first round in 2010, Bryant also drew headlines after a heated
exchange with security at a shopping mall and a lawsuit from a jeweler
that alleged he owed thousands of dollars.

Asked whether Bryant would still be a member of the Cowboys without the so-called "Dez Rules," there is an extended pause before Jones responds.

"That's a fair question, but I don't know the answer," he says. "But let me say this: To be on the Dallas Cowboys, he needed to show that he was serious about altering his lifestyle."

Irvin,
who at times during his playing career had a round-the-clock security
detail, believes that Bryant is lucky to have landed with Jones in Dallas.

"He's
trying to make the story end well," Irvin says of Jones. "What's wrong
is wrong. But Jerry will try to look at it and try to make it better."

Bryant declined to comment for this story.

If
induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame was merely about fame,
Jones would have already been enshrined -- although the fuel for his
actual candidacy will revolve around the Super Bowls and perhaps more so
his imprint in changing the business of the NFL, which includes his
grand, $1.2 billion palace, Cowboys Stadium.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft appreciates Jones' skill as a businessman.

"He's
one of the greatest salesmen ever," Kraft says in a telephone
interview. "I think he could talk the dog off the meat truck. Sometimes I
listen to him and ''m not exactly sure what he's saying, but I'm ready
to go along because he makes it sound so good."

Jones points out that salesmanship has always been a hallmark of his franchise.

"Tex (Schramm, the former Cowboys
president who Jones fired shortly after buying the team) was brilliant
with PR, exposure and visibility. Marketing is using that and having
some juice to help run it and make more if it," Jones says.

Former Cowboys coach Bill Parcells says he gained an appreciation of Jones' marketing savvy during his four-year tenure (2003-06) as Cowboys coach. Earlier this week, Parcells recalled how the team Cowboys
switched training camp sites from San Antonio (where it practiced at
the Alamodome, due to oppressive heat) to Oxnard, Calif., cooled by
Pacific Ocean breezes.

Then switched back to San Antonio.

"I
said, 'Why would we do that? It's cool at night out here, players get a
chance to have their bodies recover.'" Parcells recalled of the
conversation.

According to Parcells, Jones said: "Well, Bill, our sponsors."

Dr Pepper was among the sponsors.

Parcells
added, "I said, 'Now let me get this straight here: We have a billion
dollar corporation and we're worried about selling soda in Texas?'

"Jerry said, 'We're really not worried about selling soda, (but) it allows us to sell potato chips and other things.'

Last year, when the Cowboys decided to go back to Oxnard for camp, Parcells sent Jones a text message that he says read:

"I guess we don't have to sell any soda this year!"

Jones says that period after he first bought the Cowboys says everything about how he operates his franchise now.

"I could've done a $2 billion takeover (in another industry) with the capital I put in the Dallas Cowboys," he says. "I really could see (myself as) the idiot who had something real good, who blew it all to coach the Cowboys. I just knew that was going to be my legacy."

Yes, he said "coach" the Cowboys. He often puts it that way.

For years Jones has been hammered for being his own GM. He believes having another person as GM, in the Cowboys' structure, would compromise his coach.

Jones,
who already has gone through seven head coaches, says, "It just would
mean that we would've had seven general managers. How do you have issues
with a coach and not the GM?

"There are very few situations in
the NFL where the owner doesn't make the ultimate call. If the Ravens
make a big call is Steve Bisciotti going to be involved?"

Off the
field Jones has performed on a Hall of Fame level when it comes to the
business, further validated by another ranking by Forbes as the NFL's
most valuable franchise.

"That's a footnote," he says. "What I'm more interested in is stepping out here and having the Dallas Cowboys get on a run and get back on top, winning Super Bowls."

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